README.claws
------------
Summary:
1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
* From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
* From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
3. Things Claws does different
* auto address replacement in summary view
* manual selection of MIME types for attachments
* sharing mail folders
* default to address for folders
* threading mode per folder
* simplify subject string
* pixmap themes
* user definable actions
* spell checking (with installation instructions)
* new cache
* extended search in quick search
* 'dynamic' signatures
4. How to contribute
5. How to request features
6. Installing Claws from CVS
7. History
1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
--------------------------
Sylpheed Claws is a bleeding edge branch of Sylpheed, a light weight mail
user agent for UNIX. Features in this branch may (or may not) end up in
Sylpheed.
Hiroyuki's ChangeLog is also included in the claws-branch distribution,
so it should be easy to spot which features were merged with Sylpheed
(and which features were not).
For brevity Sylpheed Claws is referred to as Claws, and Sylpheed as either
Sylpheed or Main.
2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
------------------------------------------------
From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
-------------------------------
From the user perspective Claws is just a fancy Sylpheed, so it uses the
same Sylpheed setting files located in ~/.sylpheed.
It's always a good idea to back up all files in ~/.sylpheed in case
you want to switch back to Sylpheed. (You don't have to backup the
directories.)
There are some things that frequently come up when switching to Claws:
* What happened to my filter rules?
Claws uses a new filtering system. Your old Sylpheed filter rules will not
be used. In subdirectory tools/ of the distribution there is a Perl script
called filter_conv.pl which converts old filter rules to the claws
filtering system, see tools/README for details.
* What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons?
There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
between composing mail and news by clicking on the button with the triangle.
* And to the Preferences and Execute buttons?
Sorry, they're not there.
From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
-------------------------------
Moving from Claws to Sylpheed is also simple. Sylpheed should neglect the things
Claws put in the settings files. This also means that the old rules will work
again.
If you want to switch back to Claws at a later time, make sure you back up at least
~/.sylpheed/matcherrc (the Claws filtering rules), and ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc
(which may have some claws specific settings).
When switching back to Sylpheed you will not lose messages or message flags (color
labels, read / unread status of messages).
Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed on a regular basis
----------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to have both claws and main installed concurrently simply pass them
a different --prefix when doing ./configure. Then use the script 'sylpheed-switcher',
(which is provided in the tools directory), to launch the version you require without
fear of losing specific settings related to either claws or main. Further details can
be found in tools/README.
3. Things Claws does different
------------------------------
Claws does a lot of things different. Here a quick run-down of things that
are hardly noticeable, but deserve mentioning:
* auto address replacement in summary view
-----------------------------------
This matches a plain email address with a person in the address book. This
feature is enabled in Common Preferences | Tab Display | SummaryView Group |
Display sender using addressbook
* manual selection of MIME types for attachments
-----------------------------------
You can change the MIME type of an attachment by right-clicking in the
attachment list, selecting Property in the menu. The MIME type list
is a combo box with the known MIME types.
* sharing mail folders
-----------------------------------
You can also share or use shared mail folders. Right-click a folder and
select Property. Change the Folder chmod setting.
* default to address for folders
-----------------------------------
Most people filter mailing list mails to separate folders. Claws allows
you to associate a folder with a mailing list or a person. Right-click a
folder, select Property and change the Default To setting. When you
compose a new mail, when this folder is selected the recipient address
will be set to this address.
(NOTE: this is also a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-setting! If you want
to send a private mail, don't have a folder selected with this setting
set.)
* pixmap themes
-----------------------------------
To use different icon sets you need to create a directory:
mkdir ~/.sylpheed/themes
Icon sets should be placed in this directory in their own sub-directory.
They are then selectable from Pixmap Theme on the Interface tab of Commmon
Preferences.
* user definable actions
-----------------------------------
The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external
commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or
just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to
filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in
the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon
actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed.
For example, Sylpheed does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm
popular in some newsgroups. It does not support natively armored
encryption or clear signing. It does not support uuencoded messages. As
all these features can be handled by external programs, the actions
provide a convenient way to use them from the menu bar.
a. Usage
--------
To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the
command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu.
By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.
The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed
stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the
following syntax for the command:
* %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
than one, then the command will be launched for each message with
the appropriate file name
* %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages
are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the
list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command:
then the command will be launched for each selected message with
the name of this message and with the list of all selected
messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
* %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message.
The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart
message, it denotes the message body.
* Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
* Prepending *: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
input a text that you will enter in a dialog window. But in
contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidden (useful when
entering passwords).
* Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously.
That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed won't wait for the command
to finish, nor will it catch its output or its error messages.
* Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current
displayed text or the current selected text from the message view
or the compose window to the command standard input. The command
will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
* Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current
displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
compose window.
When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to
finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog
window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
the command has some output: error messages or even its standard output
when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are
being run, they are run in parallel and each command output is separated
from the outputs of the others.
a. Examples
-----------
Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for
storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your
~/.sylpheed/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed before). The syntax is very
simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name and the
command line separated by a colon and a space ": "
Purpose: rot13 cyphering
Definition: Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
Details: This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the
(selected) text in the message/compose view.
Purpose: Decoding uuencoded messages
Definition: UUdeview: xdeview %F&
Details: xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in
multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.
Purpose: Display uuencoded image
Definition: Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
Details: Displays uuencoded files. The uudec[1] script can be found in
the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
Purpose: Alter messages
Definition: Edit message: gvim -f %F
Details: Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove
unneeded message parts, etc.
Purpose: Pretty format
Definition: Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg|
Details: par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a
very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying
text. Used when composing a message
Purpose: Browse
Definition: Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
Details: Browse the selected message part in Dillo.
Purpose: Clear Sign
Definition: GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign-syl|
Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
Details: Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
actions output dialog.
Purpose: Decrypt ASCII Armored
Definition: GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
Details: Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered
into the opened action's input dialog.
[1] The uudec script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The
latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from
standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files
instead of standard input.
[2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
distribution package.
* Spell checker for Sylpheed-Claws
-----------------------------------
a. Requirements
b. Configuration and installation
c. Usage
d. Known problems
a. Requirements
---------------
Note:
As for version 0.8.3 (and cvs version 0.8.2claws3), Sylpheed-Claws uses
the new GNU/aspell 0.50 for spell checking instead of the obsolete pspell
and old aspell 0.33.x. You will need to upgrade your system. See
http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell for instructions on how to do this.
The spell checker in Sylpheed requires the new GNU/aspell library
(http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell), version 0.50 or newer.
You also need the dictionaries. Check GNU/aspell home page for how
to download and install them.
NB: The old dictionaries used by the old aspell will not work.
b. Configuring Sylpheed
-----------------------
Spell checking is enabled if you configure Sylpheed appropriately. Add
the option '--enable-aspell' when configuring. E.g.:
./configure --enable-aspell
The configure script needs the 'aspell' executable to be in your path.
If it is in unusual places, use '--with-aspell-prefix' to tell the path of
the aspell executable. E.g., if aspell's full path is
/foo/bar/bin/aspell, then use:
./configure --enable-aspell --with-aspell-prefix=/foo/bar
The '--with-aspell-prefix=PREFIX' option will let the configure
script search for includes and libraries in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib.
You can also specify manually the includes and libraries path by using
either following options:
--with-aspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
and/or
--with-aspell-libs=/rab/oof/lib
as appropriate.
The configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
it lists 'GNU/aspell = yes'.
Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
c. Usage
--------
NOTE: if you upgraded from Sylpheed-Claws 0.8.2 (or cvs version 0.8.2claws2)
or earlier, please check if the dictionary path was updated in the
Configuration -> Common Preferences -> Spell Checker menu. If not, update
it accordingly as explained below.
After successful compiling, you need to tell Sylpheed where your
dictionaries reside. The configure script should have found it,
but in case it did not, run 'aspell config dict-dir' on the
shell to get the path to the dictionaries.
Then run Sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
Spell Checker. Check the box 'Enable spell checker' and
use the file selector ('...' button) to select the path where the
dictionaries reside. Within the file selector, go to that directory
and select *any* file in the file lists. Click OK. Then, you should
be able to select your default dictionary.
When composing, misspelled words are highlighted. Click on any
highlighted word with the right mouse button to get a list of
suggestions. The first entry of the menu just displays the unknown
word. Selecting 'Accept in this session' (or hitting MOD1-Space,
where MOD1 is usually the ALT key) will ignore this word and accept
it in this message. Selecting the next entry, "Add to dictionary", which
is bound to MOD1-Enter combination, will add the unknown word to your
personal dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
The first 15 suggestions can be accessed by typing one of the first letters
of Latin alphabet (if this does not suit your language, please send
a mail to melvin.hadasht@free.fr). Aspell has a 'learn from mistake'
function that can be used by pressing the MOD1 key and selecting the
suggestion (with the keyboard or with the mouse). See GNU/aspell manual
§6.3 for an explanation of this feature (also called 'replacement storing').
If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
Finally, you can change the suggestion mode, and the learn from
misktakes feature.
Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts. In the
'Edit' menu of the compose window, there are two menus 'Check backwards
misspelled word' and 'Forward to next misspelled word'. Add to them
appropriate keyboard shortcuts. 'Check backwards misspelled word'
checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is
closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to
continue editing. The 'Forward to next misspelled word' do the same
thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
misspelled word. This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
starting from its beginning and using the 'Forward to next misspelled
word' keyboard short cut.
d. Known problems
-----------------
No known problems as the time of this writing (0.8.2claws3).
* simplify subject string
-----------------------------------
It is possible to remove parts of string from the subject line.
Example: [Sylpheed-claws-users] This is a test
becomes: This is a test
This is a per folder property. Right click on a folder and select
property, enable Simplify Subject RegExp check box. Example
regexp for the above is: \[Sylpheed-claws-(devel|users)\]
Another example for the Sylpheed mailing list (not claws!) is:
\[sylpheed:[0-9]{5}\]
* new cache
-----------------------------------
New cache is a new data cache structure for sylpheed, that will
solve many of the problems sylpheed currently has with updates to
flags. But you will also notice a large speed gain when you open
these folders.
New cache uses two new configuration parameters that can be
adjusted in ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc (no gui for them available yet).
cache_max_mem_usage (default: 4096)
the maximum kB of memory sylpheed should use.
It will try to keep the memory usage below this
value, but it will always use the assigned
amount of memory for speed gain.
cache_min_keep_time (default: 15)
the minimum time in minutes sylpheed will keep
the folder cache in memory. If a cache is more
recent than this time it will not be freed even
if the memory usage is above the maximum. You
should probably set this value higher than your
mail check interval. Otherwise the cache will
always be freed between checks even if the folder
is accessed on every check, which will cause much
disk IO.
The check if memory can be freed is currently done after the
active folder has been changed or whenever a new cache is read,
i.e. triggered by mail incorporation.
New mails in MH folders are not detected automatically like before,
when you enter the folder. You have to update the folder manually,
or activate the auto update setting in the options.
There are a lot more options. If you find one, don't hesitate to
mention it.
* Custom toolbar
----------------
Configuration->Custom toolbar lets you define the toolbar
you want. The configuration dialog enables you to set an icon,
an appropriate text and map an action to it. Actions to choose
from are predefined. You may as well have your "Sylpheed Actions"
(refer to "user definable actions" above) on your toolbar.
Example:
* Configuration->Actions
- add an entry "Dillo: dillo %p&"
* Configuration->Custom toolbar
- select Sylpheed Actions Feature
- select "Dillo: dillo %p&" from drop down list
- choose an icon and click ok
* extended search in quick search
---------------------------------
This feature allows one to define criteria that messages have
to match in order to be displayed in the summary view pane.
Search types titled From, Subject and To are self explanatory.
Search type extended allows one to use Sylpheed's powerful
filtering engine to select messages. Examples:
from regexpcase "foo"
subject regexp "Bug" & to regexp "sylpheed-claws"
Additionally, it is possible to use simpler yet equally
powerfull patterns for message selections. Mutt users will
immediately recognize most of the available patterns:
Pattern Parameter Selects
----------------------------------------------------
a all messages
ag # messages whose age is greater than #
al # messages whose age is lower than #
b S messages which contain S in the message body
B S messages which contain S in the whole message
c S messages carbon-copied to S
C S message is either to: or cc: to S
D deleted messages
e S messages which contain S in the Sender field
E S true if execute "S" succeeds
f S messages originating from user S
F forwarded messages
h S messages which contain header S
i S messages which contain S in Message-Id header
I S messages which contain S in inreplyto header
L locked messages
n S messages which are in newsgroup S
N new messages
O old messages
r messages which have been replied to
R read messages
s S messages which contain S in subject
se # messages whose score is equal to #
sg # messages whose score is greater than #
sl # messages whose score is lower than #
Se # messages whose size is equal to #
Sg # messages whose size is greater than #
Ss # messages whose size is smaller than #
t S messages which have been sent to S
T marked messages
U unread messages
x S messages which contain S in References header
y S messages which contain S in X-Label header
# means number
S means regexp string
It is possible to use logical operators AND (&), OR (|) and
NOT (! or ~). Case sensitive search is achieved with %.
Examples:
T marked messages
U unread messages
f "john beavis" messages from john beavis
%f "John Beavis" messages from John Beavis (case sensitive)
~s foo messages which do not have foo in the subject
f foo & ~s bar messages from foo that do not have bar in thesubject
* (build in) image viewer
-----------------------
Claws allows to load viewers for mime parts with plugins. To keep
the main programs code small and easier to maintain by defining an
API for viewers and not having to include every viewer in the code
the build in image viewer was removed and put into a plugin. If you
wonder why image viewing is not working anymore you probably have
to load the plugin.
4. How to contribute
--------------------
Sylpheed Main:
submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Hiroyuki, or Paul Mangan
(for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page,
)
Sylpheed Claws:
It is highly recommended to use the sourceforge project page
of claws. Check:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse
If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan or consider
posting to the sylpheed claws users mailing list.
Bugs can be reported with Claws' bugzilla at:
http://sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/bugzilla/index.cgi
Of course you can also post to the sylpheed claws users
mailing list.
Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
a long time to stabilize, send a mail to Paul Mangan. We can probably
arrange access to the Claws branch.
5. How to request features
--------------------------
Ask around in both Sylpheed ML and Sylpheed Claws Users ML. Note
that some developers may already thought about your feature, may
perhaps be implementing it - or the feature was already discussed
and rejected for whatever reason. You might want to go ahead and
hack a patch for it. (That would be very cool!) Another
possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
sourceforge project page.
6. Installing Claws from CVS
----------------------------
a. Downloading
--------------
To download the latest cvs cd to the directory where you wish to download
to and type the following information:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws login
When prompted for a password press the RETURN key.
After anonymously logging in:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws co sylpheed-claws
b. Installing
-------------
To compile and install use the following commands:
./autogen.sh [add configure options as required]
make
make install [as root]
You will need a full set of development tools installed to be able to run
autogen.sh. See also ac/README.
7. History
----------
TODO